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Practical Knowledge

Selected Essays

Kieran Setiya

Description

In the last forty years, action theory has revitalized moral philosophy. Philosophers have explored the nature of agency, what is involved in acting for a reason, how we know what we are doing, the role of intention, desire, and belief in motivating action, and more. At their most ambitious, philosophers have claimed that action theory is the foundation of ethics. For rationalists or constitutivists, the standards of practical reason derive from the nature of agency as a functional or teleological kind. They are no more mysterious than the standards for being a good clock or a good heart, given the function of clocks and hearts.

In this collection of new and previously published essays, Kieran Setiya defends a causal theory of intentional action on which it is explained by knowledge in intention, a form of practical knowledge that transcends prior evidence. Such knowledge rests on knowing how to do the things we do. The theory is otherwise minimalist: agents need not regard their reasons as good, put means to ends, or adopt particular aims. It follows that we must reject the rationalist or constitutivist approach: the nature of agency is too thin to support the standards of practical reason. But the upshot is not nihilism. Instead, the requirement of means-end coherence is explained by the cognitive aspect of intention; and the standards of practical reason are those of ethical virtue, applied to practical thought.

Practical Knowledge

Selected Essays

Kieran Setiya

Author Information

Kieran Setiya is Professor of Philosophy at MIT. He works in action theory, ethics, and epistemology, and is the author of Reasons without Rationalism (2007) and Knowing Right From Wrong (OUP 2012). His essays range from the nature of rational agency to the place of love in moral philosophy and the resolution of the midlife crisis.

Practical Knowledge

Selected Essays

Kieran Setiya

Reviews and Awards

"I warmheartedly recommend Practical Knowledge to everyone with a serious interest in action theory, reasons and rationality, and ethics. The writings are sophisticated, so they require familiarity with the basics of the literature. They might be most appreciated by advanced students and specialists. As I wrote before, if Setiya's view is correct that has weighty implications for ethics and views of agency - of what is, for us humans, good to do and why - so the work required by the essays certainly pays off." -- István Zoltán Zárdai, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

"A complex tapestry of interrelated claims about what it is for agents to act intentionally and for (good and bad) reasons, with frequently interesting and occasionally surprising implications for a range of disputed questions in ethics, the philosophy of mind, and what has come to be known as 'meta-normativity'...every essay in this collection will repay careful study." -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews